Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1887-08-19

tu llSHtlul duJuOrlly, ulNlut anu Huludu,
and it was the rightness and righteous
exercise of authority which commanded
their respect and allegiance. Its abuse
they knew was outside the functions of
government and therefore intolerable.
The committee of the convention at
Westminster in III enuncate the prin-
cipe thus "Whenever protection was
withheld by government no allegiance
was due or could of right be demanded"
The pioneers in this region were not
unwilling to submit to the colonial iuris-
diction of New York, but could not and
never would suffer unjust evictions of
lands granted by an officer of the crown
and redeemed to uses of civilization by
years of patient toll and hardship.
In common with other colonsts, they
would have remained in willing allegi-
ance to the English government had the
latter respected and secured to them those
natural rights which are the gift of God
and not of governments.
These men saw clearly the true func-
tions of government, and so gave new
meaning to the term patriotism. Love
of country is instructive and universal
and men have died for country in every
age, but in every age until the English
revolution government and country have
been convertible terms, and human his
tory is not history of the phople but
almost to our time a continuous record
of the follies and crimes and expressions
committed by kings and princes and no.
bles.
The great teacher and Saviour of the
race declared the rights and dignity of the
individual man, as man. nineteen CEN
turtles ago; but the grand truth was new
er recognized and formulated by any civil
government, until more than 1900 years
later, the great charter of English liberty
was wrung from reluctant king. For cen
turtles afterward it was practically dsre-
garded, but the seed sown in mems hearts
slowly terminated and grew and became
the tree of liberty under which our faith
ers gathered and which they watered
with their blood.
Did time serve might dwell upon the
personal characteristics of the men who
then dwelt in this region-of their man
ly fortitude in time of trial. of the wis
dom and moderation which marked their
deliberations, of the courage with which
they confronted all adversares. of their
respect for rightful authority and their
hatred of its abuse. | might tell how
they braved the dangers of the frontier
forest and subdued it to the uses of adj
vancing civilization, whose banner they
bore; how civil order prevailed among
them while yet there was no organ
lied power, legislative, executive or
judicial. by which those functions could
be exercised and yet such was the self
governing capacity of these pioneers, for
the most part plain farmers, that under
the most trying emergencies and without
any of the ordinary appliances which
pertain TO government in the mainte-
nance of private rights and public order
they held both secure and at the same time
without stint gave of their scant means.
and offered themselves ready sacrifice
in support of the common cause, of all
which Ticonderoga, Hubbardton, Ben
nington and Saratoga will stand as wit
nesses forever.
They were no carpet knights. nor
plumed cavaliers playing fantastic tricks
of knight errantry. They were grim
fighters, and they fought in their every
day clothes; but as they stood on that
long summer day in deadly conflict with
the hirelings of half-demented king.
who madly flung away the brightest
Jewel in his crown, every brave heart be
meath the yOeman's Jacket beat with the
Hottest inspiration of a courage born of
faith in God and in his eternal princi-
: Piles of Justice and in deathless devotion
to country. Every patriot bullet was
. winged and instinct with this inspiration.
While love of country famed in their
hearts, that word country, meant far
more to them than it did to the Greeks at
t Marathon. To them country stood for
the people, secure in all natural rights
: and all the social and civil free institu-
tons essential to their preservation.
= They scorned kingly and priestly and
: lordly and every form of class privilege
and prerogative. They were living epis-
ties of new faith. They were yeomen,
they were warriors, they were states
) men. They were fit founders of a new
system of government. so we'll epitom-
lied by the immortal Lincoln as Gov
eminent of the people, for the people,
by the people," In this faith they lived,
: and for its triumphant establishment
they fought and conquered on yonder
, hillside. The homer of their grand
achievement is the glorious inheritance
of the three New England States repre-
t scented here to-day, from whose valleys
2 and hillsides their patriotic sons, leaving
wife and child and quiet home and peace
full pursuits, so swiftly rallied at the call
of country The fruits of their victory
I are the common heritage of the whole
! country for all time to come. Their
, heroic example is for mankind. The law
! of the conservation of force prevails in
t the moral as in the physical world.